1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is generally related to compressible product dispensers and particularly to a container and a dispenser for supporting and storing the container as the material contained therein is being discharged. The dispenser includes a fixed central piston mechanism which urges the product from the container and cutter means for slicing the container into strips which are readily rolled and stored within the dispenser apparatus.
2. HISTORY OF THE PRIOR ART
The dispensing of products from disposable containers is an everyday occurrence for almost every individual in this country. Most frequently, dispensable collapsible containers or tubes are used to dispense hygienic products such as toothpaste, soaps, shampoos, hair creams, lotions and the like. Considering the amount of pastes, creams and other similar viscous liquid products that are dispensed in collapsible containers or tubes, there has been little effective innovations directed toward both making the use of such containers more neat and clean while providing dispensing means which are esthetic and which provide for maximum economic savings by insuring that substantially all the product stored in such containers is dispensed for use prior to discarding the container or prior to the time the dispenser becomes inoperable.
Almost everyone is familiar with the general use of a collapsible wall container-dispenser. Due to indiscriminate squeezing of such containers either much of the product contained therein is not dispensed or the walls or seams securing the walls fracture releasing the contents in a messy and uncontrollable manner. A typical or conventional collapsible container is a tube having plastic side walls which are joined at a seam defining the base of the tube. The outlet is generally formed of a less pliable nozzle portion which may have a screw type cap removably secured thereto. Even if care is taken to neatly and systematically dispense the product from such containers, there generally remains a portion of the product which simply is not or cannot be squeezed or discharged therefrom. This is particularly true when there is no structure provided to scrape the side walls of such containers or means provided to collapse or completely engage the outlet portion thereof to ensure complete product removal.
In order to reduce the waste involved in the use of most conventional paste dispensers, numerous designs have been developed to provide mechanical assistance for discharging the products from collapsible tubes. Further, recognizing the adverse esthetics involved with using collapsible dispensers, some prior art dispensing mechanisms were additionally designed to provide a housing for the containers so that the containers or tubes were always hidden from view. One such dispenser is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,195 to Reinstra wherein the tube is stored in a decorative or simulative housing with the tube being connected via a secondary conduit to a point of discharge.
Other prior art developments provide mechanical dispensers which include structures for systematically forcing a product from a collapsible wall container or tube and also provide a storage area to receive the used portions of the tube as the product is dispensed. Most such devices, however, are not economical to construct and therefore would not obtain consumer approval or are cumbersome or awkward to use. In addition, many such dispensers still leave a percentage of the product in the collapsed tube after the tube has been fully acted on. Some additional examples of prior art include structures disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,200,219 to Moxon; U.S. Pat. No. 2,566,503 to Snyder; U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,928 to Caldwell; Canadian Pat. No. 962,978 and Italian Pat. No. 716,248.
As an alternative to rolling used containers within a dispenser housing, several prior art dispensing devices have provided means for continuously cutting or severing portions of a container as the product contained therein is dispensed. Examples of such dispensers include U.S. Pat. No. 1,610,484 to Boggero et al; U.S. Pat. No. 1,762,943 to Zander and U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,078 to Hall. In each of these patents, a container is rotated towards the base during which rotation the base cuts the advancing portions of the container into elongated strips which are either fed outwardly of the base causing a hazzard or storage problem or are shaved off and deposited in the base.